YOUTH

by ene ijato - May 22, 2017

For Patrick

Sometimes there are things that are so simple to say, and sometimes even the simple things in my life aren’t simple. It could be said that as a youth there are certain perks that exudes from the freshness of life, the beginning of a journey or some form of epic start; the beginning of the end.

This past week has highlighted the most incumbent form of chaos I am yet to experience. l believe there will always be times when I will think of myself as lucky. Lucky for the experiences, the people, the chance to be able to make this journey –lucky for simply breathing. Being a youth is perhaps one of the most central a time more than any in our lives. It’s the point where we are trying so hard to understand the world and bend it. For some of us it is reckless, rebellious, chaotic and an entangled web of self-absorption and well for others, it is a clean-cut path of following a precedent.

In more ways than one there’s never a better time to make mistakes and learn from them, no better time to take leaps and blindly feel, no better time to allow yourself explore the things you want to because you’re able to. No better time to love, to wildly chase dreams, no better time to believe and keep in mind that not many people can.

It’s okay to be confused, to hurt, to learn that there’s not always a greener side. To learn that the world does not easily bend, nothing could break a person more. I hope you learn that sometimes it is better to reach out than to wait for someone to find you, make an effort time and time again. Find the simplicity of love in everything and love so goddamn hard.

To be a youth is to want to be heard, to be listened to, to know that in the process of finding our paths in life, there are people who will care about our thoughts, our passions, our needs and our opinions. Not people who will want us to think things we do not understand, to follow things we have no passion for, to chase dreams we did not dream or want things that do not reflect our identities.

In some chaotic form of the human ability to outgrow things and overtime allow life to beat in the yard sticks of its many shortcomings, the older generation will tell us reality will knock in some sense, their version of reality. A reality submerged in hate, prejudice, greed, lies, wars, discrimination… in such a reality is it so far-fetched to seek for better, to want differently? To simply want to be better.

My grandmama once told me in that superior air of aged grey-haired wisdom (although good luck finding a strand of grey on her head with her charcoal-black hair dye always within reach.) in thick Idoma, that there are two moments in a person’s life the Sun and Moon moment, the Moon moment is serene and ending while the Sun moment is noisy and beginning. ‘I am in my Moon moment.’ She said, ‘everything now is just about eating, pissing and shitting, and with one illness after another slowly bringing you to death’s collecting yard. Burn brightly child while you can, lead your own life, or simply be a fool.’

I am far from completely understanding the entirety of why we continue to eat up the shit fed to us from the past when we can lead our own lives, and I do not know if I ever will. What I do know is that we will pass through this phase, and in many ways, lose some of us along the way. We will mourn and a lot of us will likely forget and some of us won’t. But just for the chance we get to forget or not to, we ’ll be the lucky ones.

So celebrate the love you have now, celebrate the laughter you can muster, celebrate the dreams you can chase, celebrate the energy you have burning brightly inside of you. Celebrate it because you have it, because in this moment you simply can.

I apologise for being AWOL through the last week, a much-needed solitude it was and I thank you for your patience and for always being here to indulge me. Hope you all have been as fine as the word can encompass? you’ll hear from me soon as always.

Wham Bam! With love, x EJ

Last Week.

Book // Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie

Music // Youth by Daughters

Movie // This Beautiful Fantastic by Simon Aboud